I was happy with the feedback I received from Mirjana. It made sense and I agree with it 100%. There is only one thing I disagree with and that was the feedback for the sentences after my pinterest link. To me it sounds fine; it may sound unclear to others. I re read it over and over and could not figure out what Mirjana meant. The changes I made were to the few grammatical errors Mirjana picked up. Simple mistakes in which I didn’t see. I also added images for visual material to back up my work.

The feedback I received from Emilia was unexpected. I was really happy with it. She gave me all positive feedback, the only negative was that she suggested changing some of the pictures to try and hide any redundant links. I had a go at what Emilia had suggested, however it did not work for me. I tried to figure it out but nothing I did erased the links.

This week’s topic was lifelong learning. Todays’ learning is not just what happens at school. It is now seen as a broad spectrum, we learn throughout our lives. Digital technology has had a huge impact on our learning. An example of this is if we are unsure about something, the meaning of something, where to find something particular we turn to Google. It is as easy as getting your phone out of your pocket or bag and googling. Simple.

The term “you learn something new everyday” I think is spot on.

The task for this week was to explore what it means to be a global citizen. “It is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this communities values and practices” (Israel, 2013)

We were asked to choose one of these organisations (The Global Poverty Project, BandAid, The Earth Day Network or The Oceania Project) and prepare a short presentation on it. I chose to do a presentation on BandAid.

I chose BandAid because nobody else did. I read everyone else’s and learnt what the other organisations involved so I was curious about BandAid. This orgnisation raises money for anti-poverty efforts in Ethiopia.

This week we explored digital blurring. Is what we do in our private lives influencing our public or work lives? For younger learners playing the WII or PlayStation assists them with hand-eye coordination and the development of fine motor skills is faster if they are constantly being challenged (Howell, 2014).

For this weeks task we were asked to create our own online game using Sploder. I found this task extremely difficult to process because I am not a computer genius nor do I play any of these types of games. I spent hours mucking around and trying to figure out how to create one. The end result was not good. The game I finally created after spending so much time on somehow deleted. I have no idea how or why; maybe I clicked on something I do not know. I was not happy, I was angry with the computer and myself. I walked away from it and have not attempted to go back to it and have another go. I know I should never give up but after spending a lot of time on it and this happening I have not been able to attempt it again. I will eventually go back to it but not just yet.

How digitally fluent are you? Me personally I do not think I am very digitally fluent. Yes I can use certain things like the internet and facebook but I am not fantastic at it. I see myself as a‘digital immigrant” (Howell 2012). I did not grow up with technology at my fingertips. I have only started in the past few years to actually adapt to the technological world.

This weeks task we were asked to familiarize ourselves with the animation program Scratch. I had no idea how to use this program nor have I ever heard of it let alone any other programs which are similar. Playing around with this animation program, I struggled immensely. I was confused, I started to stress out, I even gave up at one point. I eventually went back to it with a clear mind, it started to become a bit clearer and was not as hard as I initially thought. However I created an animation that made no sense at all, cats cannot swim!

The amount of digital information available to us is endless. As I learned by watching the lecture video from topic 5. 90% of information is digital whilst only 10% is from newspapers, magazines. Messages via digital may have many different interpretations where as a message on paper may only have one.

One site we were asked to explore was Pinterest. Our task for the week was to create a pinterest board surrounding digital technology.

I had heard of it before however, I had no idea what it was all about. How it worked, what the point of it was and how it was used. Being asked to create a site under a particular topic was interesting. It opened my mind up and introduced me to another side of digital information. I really enjoyed pinning and also seeing what everyone else created was interesting. Everyone has their own interpretation of it so it was exciting to see how they see it. Out of the sites we have been introduced to so far, Pinterest is my favourite one. It is fun and exciting. I believe it is not a security risk like Facebook and twitter are, all you are doing is pinning things that interest you and you can create different pages to show your interests. There is a fun side to digital technology that is not as public as others. I believe Pinterest is the way to go if you do not want people knowing everything about you, all they know is what interests you from what you pin to your board.

Reference: Living and Learning in the Digital World Mod02 02 week 5 retrieved from http://echo.ilecture.curtin.edu.au:8080/ess/echo/presentation/822c603c-a7da-4f41-8466-5103980d029e

This is the gap between people who have access to the digital world and those who do not, causing the digital divide. You may think why this occurs, is it because people who live in poorer countries cannot afford it? To your surprise and mine it happens all over the world even in Australia.

When I was going through schooling I was on the side of the digital divide of not having access to digital technology in my home. No computer, just books and encyclopedias. I was part of the digital divide of “missing out.” Back then it was ok to not have access to technology because it was not a big thing, you weren’t missing out on much.

That was over 7 years ago. If I was to go through school (primary and secondary) now, I believe if you are unfortunate enough not to have access to digital technology then it is a huge disadvantage because everything now is digitally based. Textbooks are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

The one laptop for every child program founded by Nicholas Negroponte MIT Boston and the Bill Gates Foundation are both fantastic programs for children not to miss out and encourage all students to be involved. This way they are on the side of the digital divide of not missing out and being able to participate in the digital world.

How digitally secure are we? Do we post things on Facebook, instagram and twitter without thinking about who will actually see them? Do we really have control over who can and who cannot access the information we post? As soon as we post something on social media that is it. It is out there for the world to see.

Let’s take cyber bullying for example. Bullying used to occur in the playground. Now because of social media it has gone beyond that, it occurs on the Internet. How much control do parents have over their children who have unlimited access to the Internet?

My personal view when it comes to the internet and social media is children should be able to access the internet when they need it as a research or learning tool for school, homework and assignments but when it comes to the social media side of it I believe there should be an age limit like there is when it comes to drinking and driving. Children as young as 13 have at least one profile on social media. Being so young and not completely understanding the use of social media and the risks involved, puts them in a dangerous situation of being victims of cyber bullying. No parent wants his or her child to be in this situation. You be the judge.